My Intro: Thanks for Reading!

[Dia]

Hi, RSF,

There's stuff we know intellectually, in our heads - stuff like "I'll be fine. My career will be fine. I'll have enough money." etc.

Then there's the stuff we feel in the pit of our queasy stomachs. The fear stuff. The gibbering-in-the-dark voice that says we will melt into a puddle and dissolve ourselves into a dew if That Person leaves us.

The first is rational thought and logical knowledge. The latter is pure, lizard-brain, adrenaline-fuelled, amygdala-squeezing emotion.

The latter is hard to get rid of, and I'm even talking chemically here, because when bad stuff happens to us there's a naughty little brain chemical that comes out to MAKE DAMN SURE we remember BAD STUFF because that's how we learn to avoid those situations next time.

So - it's completely normal to struggle with fear. It doesn't make you weak or unmanly. We're hardwired that way.

That's why detachment is such a conscious, will-driven process. It has to be in order to successfully combat the little gibbering fear demons.